Equipment for automatically packaging articles generally include sequential stations at which various assembly, packaging, and wrapping operations are effected, with automated inspection being carried out between stations. For example, in packaging cigarettes, the packages pass through a seal application station in which a sealing strip is applied across the top of each package before the package is conveyed to a wrapping station. For quality control purposes, inspection of each package is carried out between the station in which the seal strip is applied and the wrapping station in order to weed-out those packages with defective sealing strips. Where an automatic inspection process is employed, experience shows that some of the packages weeded out are actually satisfactory and can be returned to the main packaging line for wrapping. Furthermore, some defective packages can be reworked and returned to the packaging line.
Ideally, those packages weeded out during inspection and later found to be satisfactory or reworked could be collected into a supplemental supply and reinserted into the main line downstream of the inspection station and before the line reaches the next packaging station. That is to say, spaces between packages in the main packaging line created by the diversion of packages as a result of an inspection, could be filled with packages from the supplemental supply. This approach, however, requires the inspection process to be highly synchronized with the movement of the main line. Where, for one reason or another, many possibly defective packages are detected in a given time period, and diverted from the main line, the inspection process cannot be completed in time to place those later packages found to be acceptable back into the line before the packages reach the next station. When this situation occurs, space in the main line is provided by halting the upstream operation of the packaging line providing the primary packages, a procedure that reduces productivity and requires manual intercession into an otherwise automatic process.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide new and improved apparatus and method for introducing supplemental articles into a conveyor line carrying primary articles without stopping the line.